so chanced that, coincidently with this order from the English general, Liprandi had also given an order. He had massed his cavalry behind the redoubts, and he now directed them, with a force of Cossacks on the left flank, to push over the ridge and pour the larger body into the cavalry camps which lay to the south-east of the orchard, and the flanking Cossacks to attack the 93rd. As Lord Lucan was riding along, he saw, through a break in the fruit-trees, the head of the huge column of Russian cavalry, some glittering in blue and silver uniforms, crown the ridge and descend the slope. He rode at Light on the left. Sir Colin Campbell drew out the 93rd, under Colonel Ainslie, and posted them on a rising ground in front of the gorge leading to the port. He had no other force, except Captain Barker's nine-pounder foot battery, with which he covered his right. Presently Lord Lucan sent down the Scots Greys and Captain Maude's horse artillery. The Russians were now chasing the Turks from No. 1 and 2 redoubts. They had placed thirty or forty guns in battery, and when the two British batteries entered into a contest with them, Maude was dangerously wounded, and the greater number and the heavier motal of the enemy obliged our guns to with-speed, and joined the Greys and Enniskillens, as they draw; but Barker, falling back, still kept his place on the right of the 93rd, and his guns trained upon the road from Kamara, whence the left Russian column threatened to debouch. Some of the fugitive Turks were rallied by Sir Colin, and placed on his right flank, but no dependence could be put in them. The only stanch infantry on the plain were the 93rd, drawn up in line along a little ridge-a mere streak of red compared with the dark compact masses of the impending foe. When the British cavalry fell back, Lord Lucan placed them near the two most westerly redoubts. His object in doing this was twofold. He desired, first, to give a clear and unobstructed range to Sir Colin Campbell's guns; and, secondly, to post the cavalry at a point whence, if the Russians moved directly on Balaclava, he could take them in flank. For this reason he made them front to the east. By this time Lord Raglan had ridden up, and had taken post on the slopes of the ridge of Mount Sapoune, then occupied by the French, so that he had a clear view of the valleys beneath him. Before leaving head-quarters, he had ordered the 1st and 4th Divisions, under the Duke of Cambridge and Sir George Cathcart, to march at onco towards Balaclava. But they were distant six miles, and two hours would be required before they could come upon the scene of action. The French were near at hand, but they had no orders to move; and, as Balaclava was an English post, the French may have felt some delicacy in acting without previous concert between General Canrobert and Lord Raglan. The former had not come up-another instance of the perils of a divided command. When General Canrobert arrived, he gave orders for the advance of General Vinoy's brigade towards Kadikoi, and for the immediate march of two squadrons of Chasseurs d'Afrique. Now Lord Raglan, looking from his post of vantage, did not approve of the disposition of the cavalry, and, being Commander-in-Chief, he had the audacity to direct a change of position. Lord Lucan was "discomfited." He seems to have thought that Lord Raglan did wrong to interfere with him. But he obeyed, and changed the front from east to north. Then Lord Raglan appears to have thought that the infantry near Balaclava should not be wholly without the support of the horse, and he directed Lord Lucan to send eight squadrons of the Heavy Brigade towards Balaclava. He obeyed. There was a long orchard running north and south, round which, on the western side, the cavalry had to move. It were rounding the south end of the orchard. He wheeled them into line, almost in the cavalry camp, and placing them under General Scarlett, he directed them to anticipate the Russian charge. All this was visible to the men and officers who swarmed on Mount Sapoune. They sat or stood, French and English, looking down with breathless interest on the scene below. They saw the Russian horse, nearly 3,000 strong, sweep majestically over the rising ground, the front of their broad and deep column protected by outstretched wings on either flank; and they saw-at first in something like disorder, apparent not real-the little squadrons of the Heavy Brigade, who altogether did not equal a fifth of the force swooping down upon them. No British soldier could have desired a fairer occasion for a display of valour and skill. The pick and pride of the officers and soldiers of France were looking on. On one side were twenty-two squadrons of regular cavalry and nine sotnias of Cossacks. On the other eight squadrons, of the Heavy Brigade, six of which were only actually engaged, and ten squadrons of the Light Brigade, not one of which took part in the fight. But as the keen eyes of Captain Morris detected the first indications of the Russian advance he of his own accord moved his regiment, the 17th Lancers, across some broken ground into a position which would have enabled him to sweep into the Russian rear. Lord Cardigan, whom fortune had placed in the command of these brave men, saw the movement, and indignantly rebuked the forward officer. That officer pointed out the piece of good luck which, as it were, had been thrown in the path of the Light Brigade; but Lord Cardigan was angry, and averse from doing anything without an express order from Lord Lucan. So the Light Brigade went for nothing in a brilliant feat of arms which their intervention would have rendered decisive. For as the Russians rolled over the ridge, they instinctively fronted towards the tiny squadrons whom they saw entangled in their standing camp; and while they fronted General Scarlett, they showed a broad flank to Lord Cardigan. Well might Captain Morris make fast his heavy sabre to his wrist, and yearn to fall in even with his lances alone, when the unwieldy mass had committed itself beyond all hope. And it did commit itself, as if in contempt of the Light Brigade, or in ignorance of its existence; for the Russians went straight towards the four squadrons of the Greys and Enniskillens. At this time the 5th Dragoons were ou A.D. 1854.7 CHARGE OF THE HEAVY CAVALRY. the right rear of the Enniskillens, the 4th Dragoon Guards were only coming round the south end of the Orchard, and the 1st Royals were in reserve. "The Russians," writes Dr. Russell, who witnessed the scene, "advanced down the hill at a slow canter, which they changed to a trot, and at last nearly halted. Their first line was nearly double the length of ours, and it was at least three times as deep. Behind them was a similar line equally strong and compact. They evidently despised their insignificant-looking enemy, but their time was come. The trumpets rang out through the valley, and the Greys and Enniskilleners went right at the centre of the Russian cavalry. The space between them was only a few hundred yards; it was scarce enough to let tho horses gather way,' nor had the men quite space enough for the play of their sword arms. The Russian line brought forward each wing as our cavalry advanced, and threatened to annihilate them as they passed on. Turning a little to their left, so as to meet the Russian right, the Greys rushed on with a cheer that thrilled every heart. The wild shout of the Enniskilleners rose through the air at the same instant. As lightning flashes through a cloud, the Greys and Enniskilleners pierced through the dark masses of Russians. The shock was but for a moment. There was a clash of steel, and a light play of sword blades in the air, and then the Greys and dragoons disappeared in the midst of the shaken and quivering columns. In another moment we saw them emerging with diminished numbers and in broken order, charging against the second line. It was a terrible moment. God help them! they are lost!' was the exclamation of more than one man, and the thought of many. With unabated fire the noble hearts dashed at their enemy. It was a fight of heroes. The first line of Russians, which had been utterly smashed by our charge, and had fled off at our flank and towards the centre, were coming back to swallow up our handful of men. By sheer steel and by sheer courage, Enniskillener and Scot were winning their desperate way right through the enemy's squadrons, and already red coats and grey horses had appeared at the rear of the second mass, when, with irresistible force, like one bolt from a bow, the 4th Dragoon Guards riding straight at the right flank of the Russians, and the 5th Dragoon Guards following close after the Enniskilleners, rushed at the remnants of the first line of the enemy, went through it as though it wero pasteboard, and put them to the utter rout." In less than five minutes, by the vigorous attack in front, and the well-timed assault in flank, and the dash upon the wings as they were closing in upon our first line, less than 700 British swordsmen had beaten 3,000 Russian horse in compact and close array into a disorderly crowd, and had driven them off so completely, that they did not draw rein until two miles from the scene of the combat and well behind their own guns, and between their own infantry. Fortunately, General Scarlett, who had the conduct of this brilliant charge, kept his men in hand, and brought them up before they came under the range of the enemy's guns. Thus were exemplified before the eyes of our 227 allies the highest and the rarest qualities of cavalry— the swift, unhesitating charge, and the faculty for stopping ero it is too late. The spectators on the hills cheered and shouted, and even clapped their hands again and again. Lord Raglan was delighted, and sent Lieutenant Curzon to congratulate General Scarlett, and tell him it was "well done!" And in his despatch home, ho said, "The charge was one of the most successful I ever witnessed, and was never for a moment doubtful." But the British general must have seen with regret, as tho French officers saw with astonishment, the inactivity of the Light Brigade. One word from their leader, a few strides round the north of the orchard, and the brigade might have buried itself deep in the Russian right rear, and have taken hundreds of prisoners, if it had not half destroyed Liprandi's cavalry. But fear of responsibility kept Lord Cardigan's lips closed. He had been “placed there," and until ho was ordered to move, there he must remain. Few men have ever thrown away a more fortunato moment, and in war such moments fly never to return. We have followed these cavalry operations out, because they were the main stream of battle. Just before the vast column crossed the ridge, the Cossacks, who had been hunting the Turks, gathered up to make a dash at the 93rd. They came down with a gallop and a yell. The few Turks on the right of the Highlanders fired a volley at once and ran, crying "Ship, Johnny, ship!" The Cossacks were elated, and they swung round their left flank as if they would roll up "the thin red streak, tipped with a line of steel." But Sir Colin threw back his right flank company, and when the screaming horsemen were within 600 yards, he threw in a volley. The guns on the heights sent in heavy shots, yet the Cossacks were not to be deterred. In a short space, instead of fleeing, to 93rd poured in another volley from their rifles, a volley heard afar, as it rang out clear and compact, and echoed among the hills. The Cossacks found that the men in red were not to be scared away like Turks, although they stood alone far out in the plain, and only two deep. So, when the great column was closing with our heavy horse, the mere fire and steadfastness of the Highlanders drove the lesser column back to the redoubts, while the guns of Barker's battery smote them as they fled. So far the conflict. The Russians had surprised a lino of outposts, and had taken seven guns, and now held the greater part of the line they had surprised; but their cavalry had suffered a deep disgrace, and had been driven in, and their general was compelled to form a strong line of battle, not for offence, but defence. Ho placed seven battalions and eight guns on the south and south-west slopes of the Fedoukino heights. In tho valley leading to the Tchernaya wore the rallied horse, with their flanks thrown forward and guns in their front; and on the redoubt ridge, and on both sides of it, and in three of the redoubts, was the remainder of the infantry in column, as far as Kamara, supported by strong lines of guns. He seemed to wait an opportunity, and was tempted again, by the weak appearance of the defence of Balaclava, to try and debouch from Kamara; but the fantry, but to the cavalry. Yet he describes himself as steady fire of Barker and the Marines daunted him effec- looking anxiously for the infantry, who, if they had tually. Thus stood the aspect of the field between nine been simply ordered, might have been ordered to attack and ten o'clock, when the action cooled down to a can- Sebastopol for aught he knew. If he did not undernonade, and the Russians, who were proud of their vic-stand the order, he should have asked for an explanatory over the Turks, seemed to entertain no desire for tion. But Lord Raglan had interfered with him, and a further acquaintance with their other foes at close he chose to interpret the order as he pleased. The real quarters. meaning was, that the cavalry were to place themselves in a position to act, if occasion offered, and that the advancing infantry would support them. Lord Lucan affirms that he did advance the cavalry, and look out for an opportunity. Lord Raglan did not think so. For some reason he was not satisfied that the best thing had been done. Lord Raglan may have been wrong, and Lord Lucan right; but at that moment Lord Raglan was Commander-in-Chief, and Lord Lucan's troopers were part of his army, and he had an absolute right to say how they should be employed. Lord Lucan is a very able man and a good officer; but he appears to have held a wrong view of his relations to his commander. And it led to a glorious but tragic scene. About ten o'clock the 1st Division-that is, three battalions of Guards and two of the Highland Brigadebegan to descend from the plateau. General Canrobert had ridden up to Lord Raglan, and had informed him that General Vinoy's brigade would immediately enter the valley, and form a little to the west of Kadikoi, while the brigade of General Espinasse was about to take post a little below Mount Sapoune, near the most westerly redoubt. Two squadrons of Chasseurs d'Afrique were advancing towards the scene of action. The 1st division, as soon as it reached the plain, formed line in échelon of brigades; the Guards on the right resting on the 93rd, and stretching towards the redoubt ridge; and the Highland brigade, on the left, being somewhat farther back. The 4th division, under Sir George Cathcart, soon followed, and was posted in column in rear of the Highland brigade. The heavy cavalry were advanced some distance in front of the 1st division, and the light cavalry were wheeled to the right, and placed near the head of the valley north of the redoubt ridge, and facing to the east. In rear the troops of General Bosquet's own division were under arms, guarding the entrenchments on Mount Sapoune, and manning the batteries; while the Turks, attached to the French, were posted, partly in the Col and partly below it, facing north. There was a pause in the fight. The guns alone fired as opportunity offered. When our infantry first formed across the plain, the Russians opened on them from the third redoubt; but, skirmishers being thrown forward, their rifles quickly told upon the gunners; and, as General Liprandi was intent on showing a shorter front and more compact line, he drew back the force from the redoubt and placed it on the east. Lord Raglan, from his post of vantage, had watched the enemy's disposition, and he thought he saw indications of an intention to retire. He believed he saw the Russians preparing to remove the captured guns. He, therefore, no doubt again to the discomfiture of Lord Lucan, directed him to move his cavalry, and take advantage of any opportunity that might present itself to prevent the removal of the guns. The infantry divisions had not yet entered the valley. The order sent to Lord Lucan was not well constructed, but the sense was plain. It ran thus:-"Cavalry to advance, and take any opportunity to recover the heights. They will be supported by the infantry, which have been ordered. Advance on two fronts." What does this mean? Lord Lucan, who resented interference with him, put upon it this construction. He held that it was simply an order for the cavalry to advance; that it merely informed him that infantry had been ordered, which is nonsense; and that "advance on two fronts" did not apply to the in Feeling that Lord Lucan had not advanced far enough according to his view, Lord Raglan directed Quartermaster-General Airey to send the following instructions to Lord Lucan: " Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front, follow the enemy, and try to prevent the enemy carrying away the guns. Troop of horse artillery may accompany. French cavalry is on your loft. Immediate." These instructions-they were not called orders, but wishes-were placed in the hands of Captain Nolan, a far-famed cavalry officer, who believed British horsemen, well led, could ride over anything. Nolan galloped swiftly down the slope and over the plain, and drawing rein, presented the paper to Lord Lucan. "After carefully reading this order," writes Lord Lucan to Lord Raglan afterwards, "I hesitated, and urged the uselessness of such an attack, and the dangers attending it. The aide-de-camp [Nolan], in a most authoritative tone, stated that they were Lord Raglan's orders, that the cavalry should attack immediately. I asked [in a very complaining tone] Where, and what to do?' [a sensible question], neither enemy nor guns being in sight. He [Nolan] replied, in a most disrespectful but significant manner, pointing to the further end of the valley, 'There, my lord, is your enemy; there are the guns!'" Here is a dramatic interlude on a bare plain in the Crimea. An aide-de-camp brings written instructions to a lieutenant-general. Theso instructions are that a rapid alvance-not attack-should be made, with the specific object of trying to prevent an enemy, who, as the instructions implied, was supposed to bo retiring, from carrying off the British guns. The lieutenant-general jumps at the conclusion that he is to attack the Russian army with eight squadrons of light horse, and he naturally thinks this most dangerous and most useless. The aide-de-camp helps to confirm him in his erroneous views, that a rapid advance is synonymous with a desperate charge. Having construed the instructions to mean an order to attack, he appeals to the aide-de-camp. A.D. 1851.] THE LIGHT CAVALRY CHARGE. 229 none the less in great part the sacrifice of many to the misconception and the pride of one. and that officer insolently points out what he is to attack. All this time both these officers have a written paper before them, which prescribes a quick advance After the fierce dialogue we have recorded, Lord to test the temper and intentions of the enemy, and not Lucan rode over to the Light Brigade. He found them a fierce charge to destroy him; and with the paper in dismounted, and orders were given to mount. "Lord his pocket, and an erroneous construction of it converted Lucan," says Lord Cardigan, in a sworn affidavit, "then into a fixed idea in his head, Lord Lucan, against his came to our front, and ordered me to attack the convictions, as he says, determined to hurl the Light Russians in the valley. I replied, Certainly, sir; but Brigade against an army in position, regarding that allow me to point out to you that the Russians have a glorious folly as the very thing Lord Raglan intended battery in our front, and batteries and riflemen on each him to do. Yet Lord Raglan was a few hundred yards flank.' Lord Lucan said, 'I cannot help that; it is distant, and when there was such a difference between Lord Raglan's positive order that the Light Brigade written instructions to advance, and a verbal order from an aide-de-camp to attack, surely duty dictated an application to Lord Raglan to decide what was really meant. But Lord Lucan did not like to be interfered with. He felt, moreover, as he told his peers, that had he disobeyed what he calls the order to attack, he would have been held responsible for ever for the loss of the guns. "Such would have been the censure thrown upon him, that he could not have shown himself to his division; that his existence would have been intolerable; and that he must have destroyed himself." Although the charge of the Light Brigade stands in the very first rank of glorious deeds of arms, yet it was VOL. VIII.-No. 384. attacks immediately.'' Lord Raglan's "order," as it is called, we again repeat:-" Lord Raglan wishes the cavalry to advance rapidly to the front [Lord Lucan's order was to move beyond the front-nay, into tho midst of the enemy's line of battle], follow the enemy [Lord Lucan's order was to attack a stationary force not then in retreat], and try to prevent the enemy from carrying away the guns" [Lord Lucan's order was to charge the Russian army]. Instructions for an advance came from Lord Raglan; verbal orders to attack from Captain Nolan and Lord Lucan. Well might a thrill of horror run through the spectators on the heights, when they saw the Light Cavalry speed off to their glorious doom. For at this moment the Russians presented a strong line of battle. The Fedoukine hills were black with heavy masses of infantry, no fewer than sixteen guns looked into the valley, and a body of foot Cossack riflemen were extended as skirmishers on the lower slopes; all this force of artillery and musketry being on the left flank of the valley down which Lord Lucan was about to hurl the Light Brigade. Across the mouth of the valley leading to the bridge over the Tchernaya and to Tchorgoun, with both flanks thrown well forward, stood the cavalry defeated by the heavy brigade, having in front, and parallel to the line of attack, a battery of guns belonging to a Cossack regiment. On the right of the line of advance two redoubts were occupied, and more than half the Russian infantry and a body of lancers were in position. Riflemen were extended along both sides of the valley. But, on our right flank, the artillery, except that in the second redoubt, fronted towards Balaclava. It was through a valley thus defended on the flanks, and thus barred at the end, that our Light Brigade were ordered to ride. The feat they accomplished is, perhaps, unparalleled in war. Lord Cardigan had formed his ten squadrons in two lines, numbering from the right, the 13th Light Dragoons, the 17th Lancers, and the 11th Hussars; in the second, the 8th Hussars and the 4th Light Dragoons. Lord Lucan did not approve of this arrangement, and, drawing the 11th Hussars from the first line, he placed them in the left rear of the 17th Lancers. Thus the brigade formed three lines. The whole did not amount to many more than 600 men. Lord Cardigan took post in front of the centre of the first line. He was conspicuous, for he wore the uniform of the 11th Hussars, with its bright cherry-coloured trowsers and gorgeous jacket, and he rode a strong and beautiful chestnut horse, with white heels. The signal was given, and "Into the valley of death Rode the six hundred." The brigade went over the shoulder of the hill at a trot. At once they came under the fire of the guns on the Fedoukine heights. The brave Nolan was in the van. He had not gone far when a piece of shell struck him, ripping open his chest. His horse swerved round, and throwing his arms aloft, and shrieking so piercingly that his screams were heard above the uproar, he rode back into the brigade and fell dead. On went the brigade. In the race of death they had to run, the course was more than a mile long. The guns on their left, the battery in front, served by Cossacks-who only sponged out after every sixth round, so that their fire might be rapid-the guns from the redoubt, on their right, sent shot, and shell, and grape into the brilliant and swiftly gliding lines, the thunder of whose trampling hoofs was heard afar. The ranks were broken. Horses stumbled and rolled over, and rose again screaming with agony; and men fell, some shot dead, with the grim. smile of battle on their faces, some in mortal anguish, some unhurt. The valley was strowed with 66 heroes. The tempest of deadly hail ceased not to rush through the air. But on went the brigade, "with a halo of flashing steel above their heads," and a dauntless purpose in their hearts. The mere sight of this steadfast band swooping down upon them, made upon the Russians an impression so terrible, that they instinctively drew back. Their fierce attack," writes General Liprandi, "forced General Rijoff to retire by the road that leads to Tchorgoun." The infantry on the left went back nearer to Kamara, and ran into squares. "The enemy's attack," continues Liprandi, "was most pertinacious. He charged our cavalry in spite of the grape fired with great precision from six guns of the light battery, No. 7, in spite of the fire of the skirmishers of the regiment 'Odessa' [on the Russian left], and of a company of riflemen on the right wing, and even unheeding the guns of General Yabrokritski," on the slopes of the Fedoukine heights. Even unheeding all this mass of destructive machinery, did the Light Brigade sweep on. The steadfast artillerymen fi:ed their last round as the first line, rent and torn, closed upon the muzzles, and, with a fierce cheer, dashed in. The gunners were caught before they could retire, and only those escaped who crept under the guns and wagons. Some Cossacks charged to save their guns. Lord Cardigan had encounters with several, but escaped with a lance thrust through his sleeve, and then he "rode away apparently unhurt." After the first line came Colonel Douglas, with the 11th, and then the 4th and 8th. In a short space the first line, which had charged home so impetuously, was now broken into groups, and began to straggle back; but, some of them meeting the 11th, faced about once more and went on. All the regiments had passed the battery. Some of the men were even galloping right into the Russian cavalry, who had fallen back towards Tchorgoun. The British horse were thus for a moment far within the enemy's position. The Russians were almost stunned by the hardihood of the charge. But General Liprandi, who was watching the fight, gathered up a body of Lancers on his own left, and poured them into the space in front of the battery, between our troopers and their line of retreat. Fortunately, Colonel Showell, of the 8th Hussars, had kept his regiment well in hand throughout. He had come on at a steady, deliberato pace, on the right of the 3rd line, but not so fast as the 4th. He had charged through the battery, and had shown front to the Russians beyond; but, like a good officer, he still kept his men in hand. His skill was rewarded. Across the rear came the Russian Lancer regiment, and some of our men and some officers thought for a moment it was the 17th, and proposed to form upon it. They were soon undeceived. Colonel Showell did not hesitate. He wheeled about his squadrons just as Major Mayou, who had brought back a knot of the 17th from their chargo towards Tchorgoun, joined him; and, leading the way. Shewell carried his men clear through the Russians, and thus removed the worst danger from the path of the little groups and single men, some wounded, some with wounded horses, some without horses, who were strug |